THE INVISIBLE MAN

PICTURE OF AN INVISIBLE MAN
Courtesy: www. ee.duke.edu


As I sit here,
Beating on my keyboard
Like a deranged animal
Just so I can leave a piece of me with you,
In works I call pieces,
In which I piece together pieces of me
Just so I can find within me peace,
Paint pictures with words
Yet still remain invisible
Within the shadows
Hidden and unseen
An invisible man.


Pull up my profile
The one thing on it that catches
Your eye is a picture of me
Purported
Supposed
In my likeness
But not truly me.
A mass of pixels that attempt give you an image of me,
Leaving impressions on your mind
Of a man
With a moustache, dimples, pimples and a brow
But you just might walk past me on the street
I just might have walked past you yesterday.
Why?
Because all you have is a supposed picture
A picture of me yesterday
A yesterday far removed from today
Today’s picture is far different from yesterday’s
The only picture of me you have today
Is that of an invisible man.


I woke this morning
Took off my moustache and eyebrows,
Funny……. Funny…..
Then went on and Imprisoned my head with a yarmulke
Walked into a smock and pulled up my African pants
Pants…. Pants….
Instead me wear them, they wore me
Making my skin jealous
Skin then began shouting out
Intruder!!! Intruder!!!
As though before it stood a cat burglar.
I embraced a walking stick
And unsteadied my gait,
Unbalanced my weight.
I walked into a persona
To neither confuse nor confound
But rather portray the many facets of me,
To disprove that which you embrace as a picture of me
For there is no single picture that sums up me.
Poetry is my craft,
My writings, my pieces, my only true picture
Through those I open doors for you into my soul,
Draw pictures of me inside
For that is truly who I am
The face you see is just a mask
Flesh, brows and eyelids that I wear like a cloak
The true picture of me resides within,
Hidden, unseen
I am an invisible man.


I try to prick your conscience
And awaken you into a consciousness
Just so you can mull over my inner thoughts
But I do not seek that we either agree or disagree
Instead I seek to scale a ladder into your soul
For it only then that we can actually sit
Talk, share and truly embrace our shared humanity.
Puzzling…..why?
Because as I pour myself onto you in the form of words,
You do not see my eyelids heavy with tears
A face etched in beautiful hues of confusion
Neither do you see a brain pregnant with colourful ideas
All you see are words,
My words……..
They are a shunt placed in my brain
So you can grab your thermometer
And take my temperature
Just so you can gauge my thoughts
And form a mental picture of me.
A picture of an invisible man,
A mysterious man.
These are the words of an invisible man…